duPont Library: Research Writing: Discipline-Specific Research

Humanities

•Steps

•“Reading” the primary source (author, philosopher, historical account, theological treatise, artistic production)

•Forming an opinion

•Then, reviewing the secondary literature (i.e., What has been said before?)

•How can you enter the stream of conversation/criticism?

•How good is your reasoning?

•Write-up and Publication•

•Common Issue: Students are often first taught how to research using the humanities model. Other disciplines do research in a different order.

•Steps

•Literature Review: What has been done before?

•Forming a Research Claim

•Choosing Methodology

•Collecting Data (Quantitative/Qualitative)

•Analyzing Data (Statistical/Categorical)

•Findings and Interpretations (i.e., How does your research apply to people)

•Write-up and Publication

•Steps

•Literature Review: What has been done before?

•Forming a Testable Hypothesis

•Creating the Experiment: controlling the environment

•Collecting Data (Quantitative)

•Analyzing Data (Mathematical/Statistical)

•Validating Data – Demonstrable, Generalizable, Repeatable

•Write-up and Publication

•Hidden Step: Others recreating experiments to ensure validity